Friday
29th Sep 2023
The EU is urging Big Tech platforms to act against the Kremlin's "war of ideas" ahead of the 2024 elections, as Russia's disinformation is flowering on Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) platform.
About four percent of global female employment is subject to potential automation through generative AI technologies, compared to only 1.4 percent of male employment. The trend is even more pronounced in high-income countries, a new study reveals.
Six months after Qatargate, as institutional inertia and parliamentary privileges weigh in, the sense of gravity and collective resolve have all but disappeared. MEPs show little enthusiasm for reform of the rules that today allow them significant outside paid activities.
Taiwan's decision to build a microchip factory in Germany will deepen EU political ties, despite Chinese opposition, Taipei has said.
Border management has become a full-fledged business sponsored by the EU taxpayer. But surveillance technologies deployed in north Africa for fighting human trafficking, smuggling or anti-terrorism are often used by authoritarian governments to curtail civic space.
The EU's emerging AI act says so little on workers' rights that Europe will need a separate AI-labour law, trade unions warn.
EU data watchdogs slapped a €345m fine on the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok over its mishandling of children's personal data in the EU.
Tech companies have increased their lobbying power and are now spending some €113m a year to influence EU decision-making, up more than 16 percent since 2021, according to a report from NGOs Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyFacts.
A total of 22 "core platform services" provided by these six tech gatekeepers now have until March 2024 to comply with strict new EU rules — aimeed to promote fair competition and give users more power over their devices.
Was the rejection of an American as EU Commission's chief competition economist simply "nationalist crap"? No, there were five good reasons to reject Fiona Scott Morton — and now there is everything to play for in breaking up Big Tech.
EU labour ministers have finally agreed their position on the directive for platform workers — but with major internal differences and a very different position from that of the parliament and council.
After several attempts to reach a common position, the EU Council could finally reach an agreement on the platform workers' rules at the upcoming ministerial meeting — but disagreements over the employment status of these workers remain sharp.
The EU's ambition to be a digital superpower stands in stark contrast to the US — but the bigger problem is that it remains far better at regulation than innovation, despite decades of hand-wringing over Europe's technology gap.
European states and international organisations have developed technologies to detect migration patterns and predict the number of people from third countries seeking asylum in the EU. But doubts have been raised about the effectiveness and desirability of using predictive technologies.
"This [decision] might not mean much for people's rights. In practice, it would mean that actually Facebook would have to do nothing, because they would have a new legal basis under which the data can move to the US."
The aim is "to avoid a controlled society based on AI, instead to make AI support more freedom and human development, not a securitarian nightmare" a key MEP on the file said.
The European Commission has long experience in regulating and policing complex industries, such as artificial intelligence. Even the big EU member states do not have such capacities and skills anymore.
European lawmakers regulating the risks of artificial intelligence are likely to face resistance from EU states ahead of negotiations later this year and possibly even among their peers ahead of a plenary vote.
The European Health Data Space is a new EU law proposed to make use of your medical records for research purposes. It would essentially abolish the medical profession's oath of confidentiality with their patients. We must not let that happen.
It's high time we escaped the barbed-wire-fenced private domains of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. You don't need to search long for a key — at least if you know where to look.
Some argue that these are merely language models working with probabilities, that they have no human intelligence. But users do not care how these models generate language. They perceive it as human-like and they will often perceive it as authoritative.
In the EU, Estonia is one of the exemplary countries which was able to bring the entire country to a different level of digitisation.
Airbnb has already patented AI software that can supposedly predict a person's traits and their actions based on data it holds on them from social media. That could determine how much a consumer pays — or even gets a booking.
Back in 2014, at Nato's summit in Wales, five trust funds were created intended to help Ukraine modernise its defence capabilities — including on cyber-defence.
The launch of ChatGPT has sparked a worldwide debate on Artificial Intelligence systems. Amidst Big Tech's proclamations that these AI systems will revolutionise our daily lives, the companies are engaged in a fierce lobbying battle to water-down regulations.
Artificial Intelligence in migration is increasingly used to make predictions, assessments, and evaluations based on racist assumptions it is programmed with. But with upcoming AI Act, the EU has a chance to draw red lines on the most harmful technologies.
"We have to make the voice of workers heard and if there is a directive on their working conditions, it has to be in favour of the workers, not the platforms," said one of the leading MEPs of the report.
Japan and the Netherlands are set to agree to join the United States in restricting exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.
"We must do everything we can to be ready with this new system for the next European elections," MEP Sandro Gozi said after the committee vote.
Europe's response to Elon Musk's Starlink broadband internet system — currently used by Ukraine in its war against Russia — is to deliver its first services sometime next year.
Companies are increasingly using software to spy on employees working remotely, said Polish computer forensics analyst Maciej Broniarz. "The market for highly intrusive spyware is snowballing," Broniarz told MEPs.
EU Commission estimates suggest that between 1.7 and 4.1 million workers are currently misclassified as 'self-employed'.
The EU is trampling on its own values and peoples' rights to privacy and data-protection as it expands its collection of data in areas such as migration, the EU's data protection advisor tells Nikolaj Nielsen.
